vSphere is the most robust and sophisticated hypervisor product available today. It is the de facto standard for businesses, both large and small. This book—written for engineers and architects who plan, install, maintain, and optimize vSphere solutions—is the only one of its kind to concisely explain how to execute a successful vSphere architecture that's tailored to meet your company's needs. Expert authors share with you the factors that shape the design of a vSphere implementation.

Which storage protocol is best for you? Should you build your vCenter as a virtual machine? Design your storage for capacity or for performance? This new updated edition reveals the design decisions that most companies face, explores the available options, discusses solutions—then helps you make the right choices. In addition to Datacenter Virtualization, this book also examines vCloud Director deployments.

Packed with real-world proven strategies, it's the perfect guide for deploying a new design or transforming an existing one. Inside, you'll explore:

The fundamentals of designing VMware environments

The overall design process

Key things to consider, such as server hardware selection and sizing, security, virtual machine templates, and more

How networking and storage landscapes impact vSphere design

Design decisions that a typical company encounters, taking into consideration availability, manageability, performance, recoverability, and security